埃博拉 z-bo 2020-09-15 401

　　As the Ebola epidemic continues to escalate in West Africa, the World Health Organization (WHO), which is eagerly looking for ways to help infected people, is considering a potential treatment that was tried in 1976: using a virus that has been free from Ebola. Human blood treats those who are still fighting the disease. "Convalescent serum is at the top of our list of potential therapies and has been used in outbreaks of other diseases." WHO said in a statement to Science. "This therapy has a long history, so There is a lot of experience in what needs to be done and what standards and norms need to be followed."

　　There is currently no official plan to manage the use of convalescent serum, but WHO said it will assess whether the treatment is “safe and feasible” and is working with officials in areas affected by the Ebola virus to strengthen the local blood storage system. These actions are also accompanied by researchers' controversy over the mixed results of serum use in the past recovery period.

　　Daniel Bausch, an Ebola virus expert at Tulane University in the United States, mentioned that “there is no conclusion yet” for this method. Nevertheless, he and others believe that this therapy should be developed. "I think we have a moral obligation to advance all reasonable scientific methods." Bausch said. He also said that using convalescent serum to treat Ebola virus-infected patients is an attractive option.

　　Data shows that there have been 2,127 confirmed, suspected and possibly infected Ebola cases in West Africa, and 1,145 people have died. Recently, the WHO warned that these figures may “greatly underestimate the magnitude of the outbreak”. This is the largest outbreak of the Ebola virus on record, and the huge number of deaths has required trial treatments that are still in the early stages of development. A few days ago, an ethics committee of the WHO announced that it is ethical to use unapproved Ebola virus therapy such as ZMapp under special circumstances.

　　Ebola virus is one of the viruses with the highest fatality rate so far, and there is no effective treatment method yet. The incubation period of Ebola virus ranges from 2 days to 21 days. At present, the main channel of Ebola virus infection is known to be direct contact with the blood, secretions and other body fluids of the infected person, or contact with the dead body of the infected person.